Reading ➼ Rodham Author Curtis Sittenfeld – Tkcleaningservices.co.uk

Um WHAT I WANT THIS BOOK IN MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW Curtis Sittenfeld, I heart you. From The New York Times Bestselling Author Of American Wife And Eligible, A Novel That Imagines A Deeply Compelling What Might Have Been What If Hillary Rodham Hadn T Married Bill Clinton In , Hillary Rodham Is A Young Woman Full Of Promise Life Magazine Has Covered Her Wellesley Commencement Speech, She S Attending Yale Law School, And She S On The Forefront Of Student Activism And The Women S Rights Movement And Then She Meets Bill Clinton A Handsome, Charismatic Southerner And Fellow Law Student, Bill Is Already Planning His Political Career In Each Other, The Two Find A Profound Intellectual, Emotional, And Physical Connection That Neither Has Previously Experienced In The Real World, Hillary Followed Bill Back To Arkansas, And He Proposed Several Times Although She Said No Than Once, As We All Know, She Eventually Accepted And Became Hillary Clinton But In Curtis Sittenfeld S Powerfully Imagined Tour De Force Of Fiction, Hillary Takes A Different Road Feeling Doubt About The Prospective Marriage, She Endures Their Devastating Breakup And Leaves Arkansas Over The Next Four Decades, She Blazes Her Own Trail One That Unfolds In Public As Well As In Private, That Involves Crossing Paths Again And Again With Bill Clinton, That Raises Questions About The Tradeoffs All Of Us Must Make In Building A Life Brilliantly Weaving A Riveting Fictional Tale Into Actual Historical Events, Curtis Sittenfeld Delivers An Uncannily Astute And Witty Story For Our Times In Exploring The Loneliness, Moral Ambivalence, And Iron Determination That Characterize The Quest For Political Power, As Well As Both The Exhilaration And Painful Compromises Demanded Of Female Ambition In A World Still Run Mostly By Men, Rodham Is A Singular And Unforgettable Novel My best friend Curtis Sittenfeld swipe for photographic proof wrote a book just for me And if the saxophone scene doesn t make you squeal with delight and discomfort then we are not the same A triumph. Haven t we all, always been asking the question, What if she didn t marry Bill in a sarcastic tone I ve been posing the question lately, what if she won the last election Don t let the overexposure of Hillary keep you from reading this book We think we ll know how the plot of this book will go, what the ending will be, everything Hillary will do We re wrong This is a page turner, a suspense novel, we can t know how this will go Curtis Sittenfeld is a very excellent writer.A full review coming, soon. Y ALL Y all. Loved it Almost as good as American Wife. When a politician is as simultaneously admired and vilified as Hillary Rodham Clinton, it becomes very tantalizing to consider the what ifs What if Hillary had said no to Bill Clinton s third marriage proposal and they had gone their separate ways Could Bill Clinton reach the pinnacle of his ambition if not for Hillary Indeed, could Hillary herself reach it Would either of them have ascended to the presidency Would George W Bush, Obama or Trump prevail had the Clinton dynamics markedly shifted In re imaging Hillary Rodham Clinton s life, Curtis Sittenfeld often makes inspired plot choices It would spoil the fun for me to reveal any of them but suffice to say that Bill surrenders to some of his basest instincts and Trump is, forever, just who you d suspect he is This novel definitely has a feminist undertone Hillary s fierce intelligence and the obstacles she and other women politicians must confront regularly are definitely highlighted Expect to find the staying home and baking cookies fiasco in another context and the old tired trope of Hillary as lesbian or Hillary as frigid woman as well as a revisionist lock her up tactic.part of the puzzle that Ms Sittenfeld does not address is how specific are all the attacks to Hillary herself Ms Sittenfeld does recognize that part of the problem is a rigidity in Hillary s approach There is a particularly strong scene where Hillary goes off script and speaks authentically and this reader particularly yearned for such an outcome in real life Expect sex scenes a lot of them particularly in the early parts of this book I found these scenes to be particularly anodyne and almost groan worthy Ms Sittenfeld prefers to skate over the psychodynamics of their attraction and spend time on the lusty feelings, sometimes resorting to clich s there s a gaping hole within me , for example Moreover, there are times when the author seems to have difficulty balancing the fact fiction equation, remaining true to the facts we know and reporting on Hillary s rise as opposed to leaning towards a recreation of history.My feeling is that the second half of the book when Curtis Sittenfeld is firmly in fictional territory is stronger than the first half, when she is tethered with facts It helps to have a feminist perspective and a favorable view of Hillary It s a fast, page turning read that, despite shortfalls, is worth reading 3.5 stars. Two disclaimers 1 I am a Hillary fangirl I have been since 1992 2 I love fanfiction Turns out, putting the two things together doesn t work for me I saw this book and I couldn t wait to read it And then I started reading it and I wanted to put it down and walk away almost as quickly I ve always found fanfic about real people to be really cringe worthy, so I guess I should have known better It s not that the book is bad If you re comfortable reading a fictional personal account of a living person, then you might like this book I justdon t I always find myself wondering what the person would think if they were reading it and it makes me feel gross This book was full of those moments Honestly, it wasn t just the real life fanfic aspect that made me grimace As I sit here writing this review, I m realizing what really turned me off Somehow, in this alternate reality, Bill Clinton is a hideous person than Donald Trump And Hillary, while not perfect in reality, is made to do things to advance her career that are really pretty disgustingand for no apparent reason They re written into the timeline, they were the author s choice entirely Why Why create huge character flaws The I think about this book, the annoyed I get So I ll end this review before I knock it down to one star It had some good moments, but overall It s a pass from me I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Note I received an ARC of this book via NetGallery.I felt this book had real potential, but unfortunately it left me feeling disappointed and unsatisfied.The first third of this book was strong and set my expectations pretty high I thought the characterization of Hillary, Bill, and their initial relationship was engaging and well developed However, once their relationship ends and the story diverges from actual history, the story takes a turn for the worse.First of all, I was confused by the chapter divides I understand that the most important and grounded points in the story are the 1970s, 1991, and 2015, but I feel like there are other significant moments between those periods which are crucial to Hillary s personal and career development that are only briefly addressed or skipped over entirely.One would assume that a book that banks itself on What if Hillary DIDN T marry Bill would have Bill Clinton as a minor character But no, he s unfortunately a constant presence throughout the book Of course, he was an important person in Hillary s life, but after their relationship ends, he s just a consistent and unnecessary thorn in her side Sure, that means there s always conflict, but I think conflict could ve been developed in other, less groan worthy ways.While I think Hillary is well developed in the first third of the book, she later on becomes two dimensional She s strategic and career focused, while being sort of ignorant and foolish when it comes to love and personal relationships The story makes a point to say that when it comes to career vs family, Hillary has clearly chosen her career and sees no way to find love or make it work no matter how much she might want to I found that to be reductive and limiting in terms of her character s potential Why can t she have both, or at least try to have both There s an uncomfortable undertone of racism in this story There are times when Hillary, as a white woman, recognizes her ignorance on such issues, but she also actively uses her privilege to advance her career, even though it severely damages an important friendship Additionally, while it is not outright said, it is implied that Hillary believes women s rights and empowerment are important to her than racial equality and empowerment, which is disturbing to say the least.The ending is wish fulfillment at its finest While I had assumed such an ending was inevitable even before starting the book, that doesn t mean I thought it was fitting It felt unearned and rushed, just an excuse to end on a positive, pro women, pro feminism, etc note. In changing the history of the last thirty years, Sittenfeld created a new political world to imagine in Rodham The reader gets to see what the world would look like if one historical figure never married another Without that marriage, how would all the events we have experienced be different This mix of make believe and real life make this book strange but unforgettable.In this other timeline , Hillary Clinton never marries Bill She dates Bill, and she falls in love with Bill she almost marries Bill, but she doesn t Instead, she has a political career based on her aspirations, rather than following on the heels of Bill.When playing in the world of what if there are many different directions Rodham could have taken Hillary I was excited by the prospects, especially the idea of Hillary as a Supreme Court justice I was hoping we would quickly move quickly beyond Bill and into the realm of political aspirations and workaholism I was disappointed at how much Bill remains central to this story I was a little disappointed we had to return to the 2016 elections and the mention of Donald Trump There was also too much of Hillary s sex life which made me feel like I was reading fan fiction at times.Overall, this book is a great exploration of single womanhood I loved the characterization of Hillary and the secondary characters As a piece of fiction, it s interesting Don t compare this to the real Hillary Clinton Treat it as fiction and it ll be strange, but fun.

Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the new novel Eligible, a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice due out April 2016 as well as the bestselling novels Sisterland, American Wife, Prep, and The Man of My Dreams, which have been translated into twenty five languages Curtis s writing has appeared in many publications, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, Slate, Glamour,